It's been a while since we've heard about this. I'm sure it's going on everyday, but it is in the news again. Isonics has confirmed that they are shipping Si-28 wafers (for SOI–Silicon On Insulator) to AMD. AMD's SOI roadmap has changed recently. In the past they listed Barton as 0.13 micron SOI. Today they just show it as 0.13 micron–they dropped the “SOI”. The Inquirer link above suggests that they should complete testing “by the end of the year.” I think the testing phase should be completed much sooner than that if they expect to have SOI products out by year's end. Clawhammer, for example, is said to be shipping Q4'02 to Q1'03 and will be 0.13 micron SOI. So, what's up? I think AMD must be doing some additional testing, but would be getting much closer to actual SOI products. If they're still doing preliminary testing … they're definitely in a rough way.Rob Note: Tom's Hardware had some details on the Barton, and no matter what you think of Tom's nowadays this article was very detailed on the Thoroughbred, and a good read. Interestingly, Tom's didn't mention SOI at all on that page, adding more substance to the idea that Barton may not be SOI at all.